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Sunday, December 2, 2007

Do you believe in magic?A song written by John Sebastian and released in 1965 by The Lovin' Spoonful.

Okay, Dawn, I am gasping. 1000 square feet? Are you sure? I thought I was the queen of making everything fit, but you put me to shame. What do you do - triple bunks in the bedrooms?Eh, we just make half the kids sleep outside. Which half depends on how they're behaving that day.

I have a question, as well. I read an American parents forum (we are British) and this year there has been mention of Black Friday quite a bit. We've never heard it before, even on this forum that we've been on for over two years. What does it mean? It's the day after Thanksgiving when all the crazy people get up at like 3:00 am to go shopping in huge crowds of people to get a Wii or a Tickle Me Elmo or whatever toy is hot this year.

I can't get to the website for Julian... I have tried before... it goes to the Carepages main page... what is the direct link to Julian's site?A lot of you have written me, saying you're having trouble accessing his site. There isn't a link that takes you directly there. Go to Carepages.com. Look at the top right where it says "sign in", "create", "visit",or "register here". Click "register here" if you don't have an account. You have to set up an account on CarePages before you can access a page. I believe the only information they ask for is a username and a password. If you already have an account, click on "sign in" or "visit". After signing in, you'll see a box that says something like "enter carepage name". Enter "juliansworld" with no spaces. That should do the trick. It looks like he and his family had a great time in FL and Julian's doing well with his anti-seizure medication now.

QUESTION: What does 'ROFL' mean anyway? I must be totally lame.It's one of these, I think.Roaming Over Floridian LakesRaising Ostriches From LithuaniaRipping Off Funny LeprechaunsRunning Over Furry LemursRolling On Floor LaughingRhinos Overindulge Fresh LettuceRuminate On Flavored LadyfingersRepeating Our French Lesson

Does this mean you didn't get any pumpkin bread? Or did you start over?Are you kidding? I just threw a little more flour in the mixer and commenced baking.

You gave a mixer to a "one, two, three, five, six, eleven" year old? And then threw a bowl full of flour into this mix. At anyone one of those ages I might think that your decision warranted : psychological evaluation. In other words... You're crazy!!!Here's a question for Sunday's post: What were you thinking?Much like Homer, I was thinking, "Mmmmmm pumpkin bread."

Care to post your sugar cookie recipe?I don't actually have a favorite sugar cookie recipe. Thanks to one of my readers, I found this though. Click here to see The Twelve Days of Cookies from The Food Network. Also, Hallmark magazine had a pull out section of cookie recipes in their fall issue. In their current issue, there are a bunch of cake mix recipes that are really yummy sounding! Have you guys seen this magazine? I had never even heard of Hallmark magazine until I received an email from the editor. I've got to say I'm not a big magazine fan, but I'm loving Hallmark magazine! There are no articles on "How to lose 50 pounds overnight" or "How to keep your lover happy" or "What BritneyAshleyLindseyParis Has Done Lately". It's a nice magazine with heartwarming and inspirational stories, good recipes, ways to spruce up your home, entertaining tips, ways to connect and much, much more. Because it's such a good magazine, I was honored and happy to say yes when they asked me to write an article for an upcoming issue.

Amen to cookies being the best food group!! I have friends that make fun of me for eating cookies for breakfast. My philosophy is if I'm going to eat a cookie I may as well start my day with it. :)I know this isn't a question, but I had to address it. There's nothing wrong with eating cookies for breakfast in my opinion. They're no worse than say, Pop-Tarts, donuts, or coffee cake, right? If Paula Deen says that cheese is a food group, then cookies can be a food group too!

ROFL. I just wrote a 50,000 word novel in a month for NaNoWriMo. I couldn't have done it without my laptop (to probably hide from the masses) my headphones (to drown out their screams and cries for attention) and Pandora.com (for great tunage). Oh, and chocolate. How could I forget the chocolate? Good luck. I still have at least 50,000 words to go. But now that I discovered the secret ingredients to success (see above)then it should be easy right? Right??Ummm sure? I keep seeing NaNoWriMo. I have no idea what this is, but it sounds like either the lyrics to a Wiggles song or a Native American name.NaNoWriMo, a lesser known Indian, was with Sacagawea on Lewis and Clark's expedition.

Believe it or not my wife is sitting right behind me right now playing Spider Solitaire. She's so good she plays it with two suits. How many suits do you play the game with? (A deliberate attempt at getting a Sunday night question answered.)No suits. I generally, just wear jeans and a Tshirt.

Spider Solitaire ?? Do you play that on Pogo.com? I love pogo.com play often would love to play a game with you sometime if that's where you play. I just play the game that came on my computer. I haven't had time to play on Pogo in months, but I used to play Canasta on Pogo with a few friends.

Did you know they have Ear Wax and Vomit flavored Jelly Bellies? Yes! I also know, thanks to Max, a family friend, that eating a vomit flavored Jelly Belly will make you turn green and throw up in your mouth.

Men do not care what is on TV. They care WHAT ELSE is on TV!!! Again, not a question, but oh so true!!!

So tell me, what time do all your kids go to bed? About two hours after I tell them to go to bed.How do you find the time to write??!?!?!?!?!?I stay up until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning.I recently started a blog, which I find such a challenge to keep up with, even though I enjoy it...sometimes it creeps into my other responsibilities, like say, feeding my kids. Which leads to my next question: Do we have to feed them every day?? Yes, but popcorn, cereal, cookies, cheese sticks, and fries all count as meals.

As for the commercial dodging, do you have or have you considered TiVo?Nope and nope. If he didn't get to flip through channels, he'd find some other irritating habit. Or, maybe I should say, I'd find something else to complain about.

Hey Dawn - Good for YOU for getting out. Might as well before the storm of 07 hits, right? This storm better produce they way they are playing it up - it is like SWEEPS week for the weather guys! I had no idea there was a snow storm coming. I had to call my mom and complain because life didn't make sense to me anymore. My mom ALWAYS calls me when there's inclement weather on the horizon. Always! I guess she got tired of me scoffing everytime she warned me the weather would be bad.

(Did you know your carpal tunnel goes from your wrist through your elbow and all the way to your shoulder? I do NOW.)Seriously? I thought the Carpal Tunnel connected Long Island to Connecticut! Supercapes, CDs, eye pillows, handpainted shoes and more are now featured on Mamaslike!

42 comments:

After reading your blog since August I've been inspired to try one of my own. So tonight I sat at my laptop while my daughter and I were supposed to be watching Hairspray. At some point she reminded me that we needed to make brownies for her "half" birthday tomorrow. I didn't hear her, but instead of pestering me like she usually does, she didn't get my attention and then at 8:50 when I said it was time for bed she reminded me again and started to cry because I ignored her. Well, the brownies are done, but I guess I better find a different time to write!

Oh yeah, tomorrow I need to rewatch Hairspray up to the part where we turned it off so we can finish watching it together.

NaNoWriMo = National Novel Writing Month, which is November. The challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. There's also NaBloWriMo = Nation Blog Writing Month, where you make a committment to write a blog post every day in November.

NanoWriMo = National Novel Writing Month. http://www.nanowrimo.org/ If you finishing writing 50,000 words during the month of November, you win. Win what? Bragging rights of course! My husband would love to do it, but can't commit the time. My sister and cousin tried to do it, but they got to busy playing world of warcraft. lol

BTW, I know exactly how you fit your 6 in your house. We have 5 kids in our 1300sq ft home. It's a tight fit, and you can't have as much junk as you would in a house 2x the size. Like my parents house. Everyone's stuff just accumulates there.

NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, where lots of crazy people try to write a 100,000 word novel (quantity matters more than quality) in the month of November. I've never tried...If you like ginger, try putting a handful of candied ginger in pumpkin bread. It's delicious :)Cheers!

NaNoWriMo translates to National Novel Writing Month, It's a competition of sorts to see now many new novels can get written in a month . The winners get their books published, and everyone else who does one can get small runs published themselves for a fairly cheap price. It's really targeted at younger writers in college and high school (a lot of schools sponsor club meetings for it), but that doesn't mean everyone and anyone can try! It's every November, so really we've just missed this year. There is always next year though!

I believe NaNoWriMo stands for National November Writing Month. It's when writers spend the whole month of November writing a 50,000 word novel.

I think if you google "NaNoWriMo" you'll find an official site or sites with the info about it. I, myself as a writer have never attempted it, but from other writers, they've told me it's fun for them and others, insane.

Good morning! I'm sure someone else has answered, but just in case. :-)

NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. It takes place in November, and people sign up for the challenege of writing 50,000 words. I didn't participate this year, but I have 2 years running prior and loved it. I didn't get anywhere near completion, but there's always next year! :-)

Now come on Dawn take it easy on us mums especially some of us have had a few kids like you [I have 5.. 2 of them in my forties] you know that pregnancies do bad things to our bladders and making us laugh is down right asking for trouble lol I so relate to you. Do you do art ???lol smiles and bladder in a knot Michelle

I like cookies as a food group. Good one. I started a "color" diet in grad school. On those all nighters, we would eat from the vending machines. So, as a way to balance our nutritrional habits, we decided that if you drink a Pepsi (from the red, white and blue food group) with a 3 Musketeers (also from the red white and blue food group) they cancel each other out, thereby no calories or guilt. My favorite food group? M&Ms. They go with anything.

Hi Dawn, Just thought I would tell you alittle funny my friends toddler said. First he was poking in his dad's belly button and he said " Dad..Your belly button is getting deeper!" Then at the dinner table he asked to see mom's belly, she lifted her shirt up alittle and he says..." Whoe You May Be Excused!" The darn things toddlers come up with. God Bless Them! Kristine in Michigan

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. The premise is that you write a 50,000 word novel within 30 consecutive days, i.e. the month of November. It comes out to 1667 words a day. If you complete the challenge, you say that you "won" NaNoWriMo (nah-no-wree-moe). The idea is to focus on quantity, not quality, and then to go back and edit later after the mad spurt of writing. I won this year, and it was very enjoyable, if slightly detrimental to my grades. XD The website is here: www.nanowrimo.org

I love your blog. This is my first time commenting even though I have read daily since your awesome auction on ebay. I love that you are a "real" mom that can put words to the crazy stuff we do day in and day out. I don't know how you continue to be mom and entertain us all each day. You are amazing!

You said: "Okay, Dawn, I am gasping. 1000 square feet? Are you sure? I thought I was the queen of making everything fit, but you put me to shame. What do you do - triple bunks in the bedrooms?Eh, we just make half the kids sleep outside. Which half depends on how they're behaving that day."

I thought I was the only one who threatened that based on children's behaviors. We also threaten it at dinner time. "If you behave like that at the table, you are going to eat outside with the dog."

but in reality we pull it off -with only 4 kids (until June). And our master bedroom has the 2 year old- who still falls asleep, happily and quietly the second you put him in the crib. And usually another kid is asleep on the couch in the Living Room- they all have beds, but often seem to prefer not to use them. And then 2 actually share a room- with bunk beds.

Okay, I saw your advert for Mamaslike 'supercapes...blablabla...handpainted shoes!!' I am a shoe addict! I leapt, as though I was already donning said supercape, to the website to find... hand painted children's shoes.

Oh, children's shoes. Ok, well, look, aren't they nice? Hmmm the joy was sucked out of the room. Here's me thinking they were some glorious shoe hand painted by some artisan master waiting to sculptingly adorn my feet. And of course, I'd have to find some glamorous occasion to wear them. Perhaps I'd phone up Richard Branson or Simon Cowell to see if they had anything spectacular to attend and needed a date.

Then, I checked the website and saw the children's hand painted shoes and remembered that my feet might not be as sculpted as they used to be, I don't have either Richard or Simon's phone numbers, I'm not actually single - which explains the napping angel next to me, and I couldn't afford them if they were painted by some old artisan.

Well, I didn't buy them anyway, I live in England, but I would recommend them to any Mum's needing shoes for their kids that already HAVE graffiti on them so it won't matter what their little one does to them!

Thanks for all the recommendations. If you ever need someone in, say Britain, to 'test out' some cool stuff and then write about them on your Mama blog, let me know. In between wiping food out of my daughter's hair, changing the Big Bird dvd for the 18th time and browsing the internet (ok, I might do some washing and tidying but I am referring to daily chores, not erm... less often), I could always try something out and tell everyone how cool it is.

Just an FYI for those who didn't already know. The name Black Friday refers to the money that businesses make on the day after Thanksgiving. It is usually enough to take them out of the "red" and put them back in the "black".

Man, oh man, did I ever score! Three questions answered the Sunday Sound Out - AND one of those being the first question to boot! Of course, I'll have to keep in mind that a silly question will get a response in kind.

When I read your story of the Pokemon cards on ebay I laughed til I almost pee'd my pants. I added you to my blog reader so I could keep on reading your post's. I don't usually comment becaust you already have so many comments by the time I get a chance to read your post.

But, I had to tell you that the story about the bread and the mixer reminded me of the time I was cooking for a youth camp with my dad. He wanted brownies for lunch desert and I had never used a commercial mixer. I think we were cleaner brownies off of the ceiling. It was awful. I didn't understand what speed was best to mix the brownies. It was everywhere. Talk about the fun everyone had telling what I had done. I finally got the hang of the machine and made many more deserts after that. Sometimes life can be so crazy, but thank God we can laugh and feel better.

Dawn Thank you so much for reading and responding to our comments! It makes us feel important! BTW you rock. Especially after meeting you at Thanksgiving, I have no idea how you have the time to do everything...

Thanks for the inspiration and thanks for the help. One day I hope I can return the favor!

Tip: Rice Krispie Cookies are especially justified in the morning, because they are primary cereal. And esp. if you put peanut butter in them. Very nutritious. Also, Haystacks - because the are a combination of breakfast cereals covered in chocolate. :)

Any food that has grain in it, refined or not, is a breakfast food. That's why oatmeal cookies, rice crispy bars or granola bars can be thrown at the kids to eat for breakfast as they run to the bus stop.

Ah, the wonders of Black Friday. Having spent the last nine years of my life devoted to working in retail in some way, shape or form, this is always fun. I've noticed it's a bit different since I moved from Jersey to Florida. There, 3 AM is "normal". In Florida, however, people line up days - yes, DAYS - ahead of time. People actually camp out here. We had our first Ikea open a few months ago, and people started lining up four days in advance. The scary part is, all the news stations around here love covering this kind of thing. As if there weren't enough real news happening.

Yikes, there is a lot of incorrect info about NaNo here! Go to the site (www.nanowrimo.org) for the full scoop. Basically, the challenge is to write 50K in the month of Nov. You get bragging rights and a cool certificate you can print out. There is a young writers program aimed to school groups/young writers as well, but NaNo is for the "adult" crowd. I've done NaNo for 3 years and love it- and now I'm a regional leader.